Simmons echoes my thoughts.....Wyc & Steve this is for you.

[celts55]

TP to Nick for his post.

It's a Wonderful Life :  Black and white or colorized?

Which one do they show every year at Christmas? 
Right the Black and white version, despite the fact that the colorized version is more modern, more progressive and more current, but colorized it's just another old movie.

Ball parks:  Fenway or Camden Yards?
Which is a destination point year after year?
Right Fenway, despite the fact that Camden is more modernized and stylish, after a few years its lost its luster and is now Just another ball park.

The Celtics don't need to be Just another ball club.  It's not pompus or arrogant not to embrace all change, sometimes its incredibly stylish and makes a great statement. 

I would love the Celtics to make a such a statement.

Just because I like It's a Wonderful Like in B&W doesn't mean I won't watch The Grinch because it's in color. As a matter of fact I like to watch The Wizard of Oz, and it has both. Listen, I loved the old Garden. I was there in 84 when it was over a 100 degrees, and thought it was terrific. I miss the crappy bathrooms, obstructed view seats, I even miss the rats, but things change. I feel the same way about foxboro. I miss the noise of people stomping on the metal bleechers, but as BB would say, it is what it is. Just because I feel that way does not mean that they will be taking down the new garden and putting back the old one. Things change. Wether I like it or not doesn't matter. I personally don't go to games very much anymore because I can't stand all the extra crap, but my kids, who are older, seem to love it. So I'm affraid that this is the way games will be. The days of people going just for the game is like my hair, long gone.

[SShoreFan]

TP to Nick for his post.

It's a Wonderful Life :  Black and white or colorized?

Which one do they show every year at Christmas? 
Right the Black and white version, despite the fact that the colorized version is more modern, more progressive and more current, but colorized it's just another old movie.

Ball parks:  Fenway or Camden Yards?
Which is a destination point year after year?
Right Fenway, despite the fact that Camden is more modernized and stylish, after a few years its lost its luster and is now Just another ball park.

The Celtics don't need to be Just another ball club.  It's not pompus or arrogant not to embrace all change, sometimes its incredibly stylish and makes a great statement. 

I would love the Celtics to make a such a statement.

Just because I like It's a Wonderful Like in B&W doesn't mean I won't watch The Grinch because it's in color. As a matter of fact I like to watch The Wizard of Oz, and it has both. Listen, I loved the old Garden. I was there in 84 when it was over a 100 degrees, and thought it was terrific. I miss the crappy bathrooms, obstructed view seats, I even miss the rats, but things change. I feel the same way about foxboro. I miss the noise of people stomping on the metal bleechers, but as BB would say, it is what it is. Just because I feel that way does not mean that they will be taking down the new garden and putting back the old one. Things change. Wether I like it or not doesn't matter. I personally don't go to games very much anymore because I can't stand all the extra crap, but my kids, who are older, seem to love it. So I'm affraid that this is the way games will be. The days of people going just for the game is like my hair, long gone.

Missing the point

With "It's a Wonderful Life" people had a choice between the newer way of doing things and the old way of doing things and overwhelmingly the public rejected the newer way.  Same with attendance at new ballparks. People chose to go to Cameron to watch Duke basketball because they do things the old way there.  As a former student in NC, going to a game at Chapel Hill was good, but going to a game at Cameron was something to brag about.

Certain facilities and certain franchises can hold onto certain traditions (aka: no dancers) because it differentiates them.  Fenway for instance plays rock music now more than the organ, but Fenway doesn't do all the in between inning crap that other teams around the league do.  Why, because they don't have to.  In the same manner, the Celts can do the t-shirts and Lucky antics but don't need to do the cheerleaders because they are the Celtics, they had Red, they can market the mystique.
 
Fans buy into mystique - big time.

[Kuberski33]

The dancers get down on their knees, with their legs spread, and simulate gyrating, thrusting, or "humping" motions; I can't really go into too much more detail without violating the rules of the blog.  To me, that's sexual.  Not all of their routines are over the top, but many of them are, and they're certainly more explicit than anything you'd see on Dancing with the Stars (unless I have a giant misunderstanding about the type of dance that is featured on that program; I've never really watched.)

What it comes down to for me is, I think the Garden should be as "family friendly" as possible.  It should be a place people can take their children to, and that means limiting exposure to blatantly sexual dance routines.  I also don't like patrons of the Garden using f-bombs within earshot of children; kids should be protected from such things, even if many of them are being exposed to such things in other places.

I agree with you, I don't see how you can be family friendly at the prices the C's are going to have to charge now and in the future.  Most of the 'families' you see in the lower bowl are either rich families or are there on freebies from work or friends.

It's all about corporate sales and adult guys like the girls.  The only reason the prices have been as low as they've been are because the team has sucked the past several years and the result was the smallest season ticket base in the NBA until this year.  If ownership hopes to make any money during the KG era and into the future, that all has to change, and part of the way you do that is making the product more appealing to business people -- mainly white middle aged males.

BTW I 100% agree with you on the profanity issue.  I've been to several games the past two years and it's awful up in the balconies.  The ushers do nothing about it either.  Maybe that will change somewhat when the prices start going way up and some of that 'element' gets priced out of the arena, but we'll see.

[klg05]

Love Gino, hate the skanky dancers. 

[Redz]

BTW I 100% agree with you on the profanity issue. I've been to several games the past two years and it's awful up in the balconies.  The ushers do nothing about it either.  Maybe that will change somewhat when the prices start going way up and some of that 'element' gets priced out of the arena, but we'll see.

Yup.  Drunk dude in my section was f'bombing it up big time the whole game yapping with his pals who were sitting 5 rows behind him. There was a family of 5 sitting in the rows between.  I didn't feel it was place, but I definitely would have spoke up if it was my family.  I felt bad for the family - though they seemed only moderately horrified and said nothing.

[celts55]

TP to Nick for his post.

It's a Wonderful Life :  Black and white or colorized?

Which one do they show every year at Christmas? 
Right the Black and white version, despite the fact that the colorized version is more modern, more progressive and more current, but colorized it's just another old movie.

Ball parks:  Fenway or Camden Yards?
Which is a destination point year after year?
Right Fenway, despite the fact that Camden is more modernized and stylish, after a few years its lost its luster and is now Just another ball park.

The Celtics don't need to be Just another ball club.  It's not pompus or arrogant not to embrace all change, sometimes its incredibly stylish and makes a great statement. 

I would love the Celtics to make a such a statement.

Just because I like It's a Wonderful Like in B&W doesn't mean I won't watch The Grinch because it's in color. As a matter of fact I like to watch The Wizard of Oz, and it has both. Listen, I loved the old Garden. I was there in 84 when it was over a 100 degrees, and thought it was terrific. I miss the crappy bathrooms, obstructed view seats, I even miss the rats, but things change. I feel the same way about foxboro. I miss the noise of people stomping on the metal bleechers, but as BB would say, it is what it is. Just because I feel that way does not mean that they will be taking down the new garden and putting back the old one. Things change. Wether I like it or not doesn't matter. I personally don't go to games very much anymore because I can't stand all the extra crap, but my kids, who are older, seem to love it. So I'm affraid that this is the way games will be. The days of people going just for the game is like my hair, long gone.

Missing the point

With "It's a Wonderful Life" people had a choice between the newer way of doing things and the old way of doing things and overwhelmingly the public rejected the newer way.  Same with attendance at new ballparks. People chose to go to Cameron to watch Duke basketball because they do things the old way there.  As a former student in NC, going to a game at Chapel Hill was good, but going to a game at Cameron was something to brag about.

Certain facilities and certain franchises can hold onto certain traditions (aka: no dancers) because it differentiates them.  Fenway for instance plays rock music now more than the organ, but Fenway doesn't do all the in between inning crap that other teams around the league do.  Why, because they don't have to.  In the same manner, the Celts can do the t-shirts and Lucky antics but don't need to do the cheerleaders because they are the Celtics, they had Red, they can market the mystique.
 
Fans buy into mystique - big time.

I think we're missing each other's point. I'm just saying it is the way it is, and will never go back to what it was. That's all. No matter how badly you or I might want it to.

As for your referance to people choicing to watch It's a wonderful life in B&W as opposed to color, think about who's watching the movie. It's an old movie for older folks. Which version would your kids pick, if they had to watch it? Mine would probably go color.

[Roy Hobbs]

The dancers get down on their knees, with their legs spread, and simulate gyrating, thrusting, or "humping" motions; I can't really go into too much more detail without violating the rules of the blog.  To me, that's sexual.  Not all of their routines are over the top, but many of them are, and they're certainly more explicit than anything you'd see on Dancing with the Stars (unless I have a giant misunderstanding about the type of dance that is featured on that program; I've never really watched.)

What it comes down to for me is, I think the Garden should be as "family friendly" as possible.  It should be a place people can take their children to, and that means limiting exposure to blatantly sexual dance routines.  I also don't like patrons of the Garden using f-bombs within earshot of children; kids should be protected from such things, even if many of them are being exposed to such things in other places.

I agree with you, I don't see how you can be family friendly at the prices the C's are going to have to charge now and in the future.  Most of the 'families' you see in the lower bowl are either rich families or are there on freebies from work or friends.

It's all about corporate sales and adult guys like the girls.  The only reason the prices have been as low as they've been are because the team has sucked the past several years and the result was the smallest season ticket base in the NBA until this year.  If ownership hopes to make any money during the KG era and into the future, that all has to change, and part of the way you do that is making the product more appealing to business people -- mainly white middle aged males.

BTW I 100% agree with you on the profanity issue.  I've been to several games the past two years and it's awful up in the balconies.  The ushers do nothing about it either.  Maybe that will change somewhat when the prices start going way up and some of that 'element' gets priced out of the arena, but we'll see.

I think your assessment is 100% accurate.  Unfortunate, but accurate.

[Kuberski33]

Yup.  Drunk dude in my section was f'bombing it up big time the whole game yapping with his pals who were sitting 5 rows behind him. There was a family of 5 sitting in the rows between.  I didn't feel it was place, but I definitely would have spoke up if it was my family.  I felt bad for the family - though they seemed only moderately horrified and said nothing.

Had a similar situation last year and the usher was close enough to hear the whole thing.  Did nothing about it.  A couple of people in the section (including myself) even said something to him -- said he'd look into it.  Took off, came back 10 minutes later, nothing the rest of the game and the guys (it was more than one) continued to F Bomb away.

Your options in that case are either confront the idiots, get in a fight -- and get tossed from the game yourself -- or put up with it.

Other arena's I've been to, they get a mini security army into the stands to make a very public show of removing the slug.  Maybe because the team sucked Wyc and co looked to cut some costs by not focusing on that part of things, but hopefully that will change.

[Bri5152]

I, too, don't like seeing the Celtics dancers when I go to a game. I'm sure they're all talented & smart women, but seeing them dancing in an inappropriate manner does anything but entertain me (and this is coming from a woman who enjoys dance).

If they need something to show the fans while there's a time out or whatnot, show highlights of the team from the past season on the jumbotron. Or just show some amazing highlights of any of the Celtics teams over the years. It will entertain the fans and they will get to relive (well, not so much for the younger fans) some of the greatest moments in Celtics history.

Just my two cents.

[clover]

I'm another one in the camp of preferring to see the Celtics Strippers go, even if we're the only such team in the league and the league has 'special events' for them.  But I don't think there's any chance they're getting nixed. 

That said, making them more decently cheerleader-like would be the least the ownership can do.  And I think it would make business sense too.

[reggie35]

What's really annoying about all this is that I feel like they never asked the fans for their opinion. What poll did they do that told them yes we need to add dancers? I've written and complained, to no avail of course. Were people asking for dancers? I don't think so. If they did a poll now, I'm sure most people would want them gone.

[Redz]

What's really annoying about all this is that I feel like they never asked the fans for their opinion. What poll did they do that told them yes we need to add dancers? I've written and complained, to no avail of course. Were people asking for dancers? I don't think so. If they did a poll now, I'm sure most people would want them gone.

Did they ask us if we'd prefer watching Kevin Garnett of Al Jefferson?